In 1945, a G.I. returns from
the war and receives a "Dear John" letter from his
sweetheart. On the night of the Avalon Bay graduation dance,
she and her boyfriend are brutally murdered and the dance
canceled from then on. 35 years later, the school decides to
resurrect the dance so you know there's going to be trouble
(especially if you've already seen the original MY BLOODY
VALENTINE). After all, Sheriff Fraser (Farley Granger,
ROPE) is going off on his fishing trip so the only
cop on duty will be Mark (Christopher Goutman) who has his
hands full with "final girl"/love interest Pam (Vicky
Dawson) and a handful of other would-be co-ed victims that
catch his eye. There's also Rosemary's wheelchair-bound
father Major Chatham (Lawrence Tierney) who ogles the girls
in the dorm from his bedroom window in the creepy house next
door. As the dance commences and students separate to find
make-out spots, a camouflage-clad killer starts picking them
off in post-FRIDAY THE 13TH gory fashion (with
effects by Tom Savini). THE PROWLER has its place in
the upper tier of slasher films almost solely for its
unrated status (although it was heavily cut in some
territories) like Tony Maylam's
THE BURNING. The period atmosphere of the opening
sequence is well-realized but the modern day portion is
rather dull. The leads are dull, Tierney is an obvious red
herring while Granger has less to do than in some of his
Italian genre entries a few years prior. What suspense there
is comes comes mostly from Richard Einhorn's orchestral
score (Einhorn had previously worked with Savini on Ken
Weiderhorn's
EYES OF A STRANGER). Tom Savini's brutal gore
effects are the reason for seeing this one (they were the
main draw when it was impossible to see THE BURNING or
FRIDAY THE 13TH without MPAA cuts and they are still the
draw now). Director Joseph Zito fared better in the slasher
territory with his FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER
(even though that one was snipped up by the MPAA).

NOTE:The below
Blu-ray
captures were taken directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.

ADDITION: Blue
Underground - Region FREE Blu-ray - July 2010:
It's quite evident from the comparative screen captures that the
new Blu-ray
is significantly brighter... displaying colors (greens notably)
more prominently. As with most Blue Underground releases this
looks very true to the source with heavy textured grain and no
signs of manipulation. It looks super and gives a great
presentation. The brighter image brings out much more detail.
With more than 4X the bitrate the 1080P AVC transfer is a
significant improvement.

Note: "The
Prowler" title font is changed for the new Blu-ray
form the 2003 DVD.

Audio advances
from the DVD with a new lossless DTS-HD Master 7.1 at 1946 kbps
and a Dolby Digital EX 5.1. There is separation in both with HD
sound giving some noticeable buoyancy and depth to the extensive
screams. They didn't go overboard with the false bump and the
subtitles are what is most appreciated. The original DVD 2.0
channel mono is still available as a choice. The DVD didn't
offer any subtitle options but the new Blu-ray
has three (English SDH, French and Spanish).
My Momitsu
has identified
it as being a region FREE disc playable on
Blu-ray
machines worldwide.

Supplements are
duplicated with the commentary, the 10-minute Tom Savini's
Behind-The-Scenes Gore Footage piece and the theatrical
trailer (neither in HD) but the
Blu-ray loses the
'Poster and Stills Gallery'. So be it.

Presently about $8
more but well worth it to fans of the genre. This
Blu-ray is far closer
to the theatrical appearance in both audio and video. This might
actually be one of the better 80's slasher flics. We continue to
show confidence in Blue Undergrounds HD transfers - great job!

ON THE DVD:
One of the earliest Blue Underground DVDs (dating back from 2002
originally before it was reissued under distribution from Ryko
in 2003), THE PROWLER was given a single-layer, progressive,
anamorphic transfer. The image is grainy but that's the original
cinematography. The night scenes are clearer than they were on
tape and the effects are easier to appreciate. English mono
audio is fine. Director Joseph Zito and effects artist Tom
Savini provide an audio commentary and a VHS-sourced 10 minute
featurette shows how the special make-up effects were
accomplished. The theatrical trailer - under THE PROWLER title -
is included but unfortunately there are none provided under the
alternate ROSEMARY'S KILLER title. The poster & still gallery
includes behind the scenes photographs and several black & white
ads for the film as well as the color Japanese pressbook but no
color posters for the film (which their certainly were).